Recovery of saxitoxin from solution by coprecipitation with hydrated iron(III) oxide

Abstract

Hydrated iron(III) oxide has been widely used for the concentration of trace amounts of metal ions from aqueous solutions, including sea-water. In this study, the negatively-charged carrier was used to recover saxitoxin, one of a group of highly toxic paralytic shellfish poisons (PSPs), from aqueous solution as a monovalent cation. Although the recovery was not quantitative (65%), it has been demonstrated that coprecipitation can be used to recover saxitoxin, and probably other suitably charged toxins, from solution. As such, the procedure is less tedious than those currently involving the passage of PSP-containing solutions through columns of weak cation-exchange resin, and gel-filtration media.